Memramcook railway crossing one of riskiest in Canada

The railway crossing on La ValleRoad in Memramcook isonTransport Canada's list of the 500 riskiest rail crossings in the country.

The crossing has no barriersand the view of anytrainapproachingfrom the direction ofDorchesteris obscuredby a house and bushes.

With nobarriers in place, vehicles sometimesrace through it, even when red lights are flashing,according to Guy Bourgeois,owner of theMemramcookAuto Servicelocated right next to the crossing.

"I mean some people they go by the red light,"he said.

"Some of them try to race past. I think this might have been the accident there. I think he might have tried to race the train," said Bourgeois.

Theaccident Bourgeois is referringto happened severalyears ago when the rear end of a car was completely separated from the front after a train hit the car. The driver was not hurt, butBourgeois says accidents are common at the crossing.

• CBC investigation uncovers Canada's most dangerous railway crossings
• Transport Canada list of 500 'highest risk' railway crossings not widely shared

Area resident Jacqueline Bourgeois says there is a lot of traffic on the road, especially during rush hour, as La ValleRoadis frequented by people travelling between Dieppe and Dorchester.

"It is the main road coming from Dieppe. With all the people coming from theDorchesterpenitentiary, there was quite a bit of volume ...There is a bridge there also and there are no gates."

New guidelines

Transport Canada has initiated new standards for rail crossings and isworking to identifywhich crossings don't meet the new guidelines.

Currently, there are just over 17,000 public rail crossings in Canada 17 per centhave gates, 22 per centhave just bells and lights, while the remainder (slightly more than half) haveno automated warnings at all, only a white,reflectiveXcrossing sign, at times accompanied by a stop sign, according to data maintained by Natural Resources Canada.

Since 2000, there have been more than 460 people killed at rail crossings according to data from the Transportation Safety Board.

After years of discussion between railways, municipalities and Transport Canada, the federal government in 2014 passed new regulations to require some upgrades across Canada, but existing crossings aren't required to meet these new safety standards until 2021.

Along withMemramcook, there are three other crossings that made the risky list in New Brunswick:

• TurgeonRoadinBelledune
• LaVioletteRoadinJacquetRiver
• Highway10, north ofMinto

Jenelle Saskiw,chair of the standing committee on Municipal Infrastructure and Transportation Policy for the Canadian Federation of Municipalities, is working with Transport Canada on theproject to identify dangerousrailway intersections.

"Between 2009 and 2013we had an average of 26 deaths and 26 injuries involving peopleand that's just too many," said Saskiw.

"So we have to work together with all the different partners to ensure that we don't have these tragedies occur across the country any more," she said.